Pearls and Skulls, Mercedes and Motorcycles
by missmarymack06
Summary: An AU Avatar Story Jetara, Makio. Eventual Zutara.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Pearls and Skulls, Mercedes and Motorcycles

Katara and Jet walk to their jobs in the mall. Katara worked at Hot Topic and Jet worked at Spencer's. The two have been going out for about three months. They met in the food court, and found they had similar tastes in music, clothing, and body piercings. Katara just recently got her third ear piercing, she now had her eye brow three times, her nose, and her belly button. When she first got her eyebrow pierced in the summer before her freshman year her brother Sokka, didn't really approve of it, until she talked him in to getting his done too. Now he has his eyebrow and his lip.

"It's addictive; trust me." She said

"I believe you…now." He said "Why didn't you tell me this before?" he asked

"I did you just don't listen to me."

"You are a half hour late!" Katara's boss said to her.

"Yeah I know your lucky that I even came in today at all." She said back

"Yeah…yeah…sort those…after you're done with that your cashiers.

Katara did what she was told, and worked her shift. She got off work about 20 minutes before Jet so she had time to eat before he came to meet her. He got a lunch break so he had already eaten.

She sat and stared at nothing…deep in thought about things that had ruined her life, what had gone wrong and if she could have stopped it. She always came to the conclusion that she couldn't, but why did she feel guilty?

"Hay, are you ready?" Jet said

Looking up at him, "Yeah, let's get out of here." She said

They walked home, and talked about their days at work. When they got to Katara's house they spent and extra 20 minutes saying goodbye, or until Sokka shooed Jet away.

"I don't know what you see in him?" he said to her, one time

"I don't know what you're doing in my business!" She said back

"Guys like that only want one thing…" She cut him off.

"…Thanks for trusting me…JERK!" she said running up to her room

"It's not YOU I'm worried about!" he yelled after her as she slammed her door shaking the whole house.

Sokka didn't understand her, sometimes she could be very understanding then next she thinks your out to get her. A lot of things had happened after their mother died. Sokka accepted it greave and then let it pass. Katara on the other hand kept it as fresh as the day she was told, it was a scab she kept picking at so it kept bleeding and would never heal.

A crossed the area in the text district over, sat a very successful young man who had just finished an essay for his college and university applications. He smiled a little when the last page had finished printing and stacked the papers up and stapled them together and put them in the Dark Red folder labeled: _Harvard_. He had four other folders with different Ivy League schools on the names of the folders. There were about 5 others that were not Ivy League but still pretty good school. Both his mom and dad went to Ivy League schools and he worked hard to get in to a nice school. He went to the best private school in the area and was in the top ten of his class. He was the president of student council, the captain of the golf team and had a girl friend. Attended fancy parties at the country club where his family had membership. While he was organizing and going though his calendar to see what he was to do next, when his phone rang.

"Hello? Oh Hello Mai, what's going on?" he asked "You get to…that's great. I'm happy for you." He said in to the phone "Yeah I'll be there to see you. I'm leaving soon. Yeah. Okay, talk to you when I get there. Bye." He said

Zuko walked down stairs and told the head butler where he was going and for him to tell his dad when he got home. Zuko put on his nice jacket, opened the door of his Audi, he got as a birthday present a couple years back. Opened the garage door and pulled out of the drive way on his way to the horse barns. Mai his girlfriend was having a horse jumping contest. In the year previous she had won at nationals, but last year she was tossed from a horse, the accident had set her back in practice so no one knew if she was going to be able to compete in one of the first competitions of the year.

Zuko pulled in to the long drive way of the horse arena, he waited in line to get through the gate and looked for his parking pass to hang on the rear view mirror. When he did he was waved through the gate and motioned to park in the VIP parking area. He put his sunglasses back in the case in the car. Got out shut the door and locked it making the horn and lights blink and sound, three times. He walked to the entrance and found where his sister Azula and her friend Ty Lee were sitting.

"Hello Azula." He said greeting her with a kiss on her cheek.  
"Hi Zuko, how are you?" she asked

"Pretty good and your self?" he asked  
"Wonderful thanks for asking." She said back. "Hope Mai didn't tare you away from something important" Azula asked with a smile.  
"Ah, no I was at a stopping point. I needed a break too. Might as well come and see Mai kick some butt here." Zuko said with a smile.

Ty Lee, Azula and Zuko kept talking until the competition started. It was an area event so most of the people competing were from either the country club or his school. When Mai was called, Zuko clapped with everyone else. Mai and her horse completed the 1 course with out a problem. As well with the 2nd and 3rd as well with the 4th, she completed the competition in second place. Her horse had knocked off one of the poles on one of the higher jumps.

After the competition, Zuko, Azula and Ty Lee went to see Mai in the winner's area with the first and third place winners.

"Congratulations." Zuko said to Mai with a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks, I thought I had this one but not this time she said, holding her ribbon.  
"You'll do better next time." Zuko said

"Yeah you did fine. Don't worry; it wasn't anything you really could have practiced for" Azula said consoling Mai.  
"Yeah, you're right.

Everyone that had came to congratulate the winners were leaving and the others were getting ready to put there horses in the trailers and go home.  
"Want to go out some where after you get cleaned up?" Zuko asked. "My treat…" he added with a smile.

"No, not this time I think I will stay home." She said

"Okay well then can I call you later then?" he asked, she nodded her head yes and kissed her boy friend good bye. Took her horse to the loading area, the handler had the horse trailer and truck all ready to load her horse up to take home.

Zuko walked him self out and got back in his car and drove him self home to work on some more college application things. It was near sun set and things were winding down and pretty uneventful day, or so he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
Pearls and Skulls, Mercedes and Motorcycles

Zuko pushed the button to open the front gate, and pulled in the front drive. There were a couple of black cars. He didn't question it entirely his dad usually had people over a couple times a week and dismissed the issue as business. When he got out of his car, he saw his uncles older car off to the side, Uncle came to visit occasionally. He tossed his keys to an assistant, "…just put it in the garage please….and I know how many miles are on it so don't be cruising around…" Zuko said with a smile.  
"Yes, sir." The assistant said back, with a large smile.

Zuko opened the house door, and walked in hanging his coat up, slipped his shoes off and proceeded to the kitchen to find him self some dinner. That's when he saw what was going on. His dad was sitting at the kitchen table his head in his hands and lawyers going through documents trying to see what they could do about this problem. Then Zuko saw his uncle sitting at the end of the island, on a bar stool.

"Hello Zuko." He said calmly. Tea cup in his hand steam coming from the full cup  
"Uncle, what is going on here?" he asked.  
"Your father allegedly has put money from the company in a personal account."  
"What?" he said disbelieve on his face, he looked over to his father who was looking at a document and said something to the lawyer next to him. "I can't believe you would do such a thing? You already make enough money to keep us in the lifestyle which we are a custom to…but that wasn't enough for you? You needed more…!" he said turning toward his dad.  
"Zuko, we will discuss this later." He said very low.  
"Sure." Zuko said and walked up the stairs and grabbed some clothes and his laptop all his college applications and some other things he would need and walked back down to the kitchen, "Uncle? May I please move in with you?" he asked very calmly.

"Yes, you may." He said very slowly. Iroh went back to his car and Zuko followed him in his Audi. Iroh had an extra room in his small house it was just enough for him and he liked it, and so did Zuko. He did like having money and it was a nice thing to have everything that you could ever want but most of the things that he had, he never had asked for them. Like the car, the laptop. The gaming equipment and other toys that Ozai had showered him with, it didn't change his opinion about his father one way.

Zuko set up his computer on the desk in the guest room and checked his email, sent some emails. Then turned the computer off, when and showered and then went to bed. The day had been so great up until now. Why did he have to do this? Why? In some ways he had always expected something like this to turn up. Zuko rolled over in the bed and tried to sleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day Katara didn't have to work but jet did, about 20 minutes before he got off work, she walked over to the mall and waited for him in the food court.  
"Hey, let's go." He said with a smile when he had finally reached the table where she was sitting. She had a drink from one of the fruity mix'em up stands one of her friends worked at she waved at her goodbye and then left with jet.

"Hey, let me have a drink" he said and grabbed the cup  
Katara just laughed, while his slurped the drink through the straw, "oh nice strawberry. I like strawberry." He said looking down at her.

"Yeah me too that's why_ I_ ordered it." She said with a laugh. Grabbing back her cup and finishing the drink, then throwing it away in a neighbor's trash can.

"Can we hang out at your house for a while before I have to go home?" jet asked  
"Probably we'll have to see if Sokka is still home…he doesn't like you at all." She said  
they walked a bit farther and saw no car in the driveway. Katara got her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door, opened it tossed her keys in the basket next to the door and went and jumped on the couch. Jet did the same thing only on top of her, Katara giggled.

They started kissing and that lead to touching, "Jet…?" Katara asked breathing heavy.  
"What?" he said  
"Do you think were going to far?" she asked him he had taken off her shirt leaving only the white thin strapped tank top.  
"No…why do you?" he asked back  
"Yeah…Sokka could be home any time." Katara explained. "…besides Jet I told you that I'm not ready." She said grabbing her shirt and putting it back on. "I think you should leave now. I'll call you later." She said Jet left the house angry, "yeah whatever." He said

About 5 minutes after Jet had left Sokka's car pulled in the driveway. She was glad she told Jet to leave when she did, because they would have still been on the couch. That would not have been very good.

"Hey where were you?" she asked  
"Oh I was just straighten some things out with the insurance company."  
"That's right. Its cuz your old now…" Katara said and laughed…did you have to fill out much paper work?" she asked  
"some, not that much." He said  
"…was there any problem getting the check?" Katara asked  
"…at first they did want to but then the looked at the file, and then they said they will send the last 3 month's checks and then one at the beginning of the month…" Sokka explained "so that will help out a lot."  
"What's for dinner?" she asked him  
"I don't know…what do you want?"

They continued to talk about what they wanted and went in the kitchen and found something decent and had there dinner. Then went in the living room and watched there evening shows. Katara went to wash the day off of her and went to bed. 'I told him that I wasn't ready but he kept going.' She thought

Then Katara thought about her dad, and then her mom and wondered how she could have changed things, going over all the details in her head. But nothing that she could have done would have changed the outcome.

Her alarm clock read 2:45 am. Then she heard something like a rock on her window. She went to it and found Jet standing out side.  
"Hey, let me up!" he said  
"Sokka will kill you if he finds you up here with me!" she said  
"So is that a no…?" he asked  
"Jet…I have to work the morning shift tomorrow. I need to go to sleep. Meet me at the food court when I'm done working." She said  
"Okay, see you then" he said in a sad voice and walked back to his house.

Katara shut the window and let the curtain fall back over it, Sokka came in her room, "…something the matter?" he asked  
"No, it was just some weird animal outside." She lied. Kinda.  
"Oh okay…" he said still half a sleep.  
Katara got back in her bed and finally fell asleep. But her dreams were filled with the same thing that they were always filled with and the out come was always the same. There was nothing she could do.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
Pearls and Skulls, Mercedes and Motorcycles

In the few short weeks that Zuko had lived his Uncle, Zuko finally sent over a list of his things that he needing. So on a bright and sunny Monday morning, a moving van pulled up in front of uncle's house. Katara, was walking home from her shift at Hot Topic and noticed the truck outside the about a block and half.

'Guess we have a new neighbor' Katara thought to her self, as she watched a couple men carrying boxes in an older man and a young guy not too much older than her self. She watched the younger man pick up a box, the muscles in his back moving under a thin gray t-shirt that seemed to be wet with sweat. It was a warm day. Watching the action made Katara smile a little. Jet was nice but he didn't really have the same muscle tone.

When Katara arrived home she went to the kitchen and got her self a glass of ice water and looked through the mail. 'Bill, bill, bill, bill…check…bill.' She thought as she looked through the stack, drinking her water cooling off from the walk home and the warm summer weather.

Sokka returned home from his job, and set a plastic shopping bag down on the kitchen table.  
"What's this?" Katara looked in the bag  
"Some school supplies, they were having a sale so I thought we could just stock up a little bit early. They tend to run out of some things at the beginning of the school year." He said putting a couple groceries in the fridge.  
"Oh yeah, that is true." Katara said, last year she went to go get a protractor and the store was out till the next week, so she had to borrow one of the teacher's and it was broken and didn't work very well.

"When is the first day of school?" Katara asked thinking about the next school year.  
"Um…little over a month…" Sokka said looking at the calendar on the fridge.  
"Nice to know." Katara said with a laugh, "I need to go back to school shopping." She said  
"Yeah we'll be able to go next week if you want?" he suggested  
"Good deal."

* * *

Zuko sat down in his room organizing what the mover's had brought. Books, photo albums, clothes, other odds and ends that he would need at his new home, he would only be there for about a year or so before he went off to college. He kept most of the things he would need later in boxes in the closet.  
"Zuko, dinner!" Iroh yelled  
"Coming" Zuko yelled back, plopped the stack of papers down on his desk and went to the kitchen and ate dinner with his Uncle.  
"We'll need to go register you at the public school, you're dad wont be able to afford your school tuition any more.  
"Okay" Zuko said taking his plate and placing it on the dining table. A few moments later his uncle joined him.  
"I hope the school has some accelerated classes to take. I'm going to need them to get in to my dream school." Zuko said  
"Yeah they do, don't worry. Actually you have a better chance of getting in to your 'dream' school by going to a public school.  
"Oh…I will do my best at my school work." Zuko said looking down at his half eaten chicken.

* * *

Two weeks had passed, and Katara was putting all her new clothes away and getting organized for classes. The school had an orientation day for students to get there locker combinations and books to put in there lockers, and there schedules so they wouldn't be surprised on the first day of school. This is the day that they also got there school id's and pictures taken.

Sokka and Katara were getting ready to go, "Katara please wear something nice-ish for the pictures. Something we can frame and give dad for his room." Sokka said  
"Yeah okay…" she said

They finished getting ready and went on to school for orientation. This year Sokka was a senior and Katara technically was sophomore, but she enough credits to be a junior, so she was taking all the next classes a junior would need to take. She needed all the help she could get at this level to get in to a good school and get government money for it too. Katara knew that her only way of getting to college was working hard, getting good grades and to get ahead as fast as she could. Every one knew that Sokka's goal in life was to finish high school and that was it, he had a job and it was okay with him. He just wanted to be there for Katara during her college years.

* * *

The first day of school grew close, Jet and Katara were sitting on the front porch talking about school. Jet was a junior this year, and was excited that Katara was going to be in some of his classes.  
"Do you know what you're taking yet?" he asked  
"Yeah I have a pretty good idea…" she said "As many advanced classes as they will let me." she said, "I need the experience and the credits to graduate soon." She said

"You and you're big rush to college…what is that going to do…everyone knows college is for getting laid and doing drugs." He said coolly.

"For some people…others like me actually want to do something with there lives." She said starting to get mad.  
"…yeah…sure but you're totally going to be the geekest person on campus." He said with a laugh  
"Do you even know where I want to go?" he asked  
"…a party school…?" he said trying not to sound hopeful  
"Wrong, I don't have time to party…who cares how many shots you can do in fifteen minutes." She said rolling her eyes. Katara was tired of always fighting with Jet. He always knew how to push her buttons and get her all angry.  
"Jet…I don't think that this is going to work anymore." She said getting up from the porch swing. She took a ring off her finger and handed it back to him, and went inside the house.  
"…what do ya mean 'not going to work'" he yelled at the closed door. He left the porch stuffing the ring in his pocket, slowly walking down the sidewalk.

* * *

So so so so so so SO sorry that it has been forever since I have updated but right in the middle of writing this chapter my power source for my laptop decided it wasn't going to work anymore. Good deal. I have been using my mom's computer till now, so yah.  
Thanks!  
--bandgeek


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
Pearls and Skulls, Mercedes and Motorcycles

Katara woke up on the first day of school, got her book bag packed it with necessary highlighters, pens, pencils and notebooks of paper. She went down stairs to find Sokka over the stove burning what use to be eggs.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked coughing  
"Trying to cook breakfast, its not going so well." He said looking down at the pan.  
"I think I'll go with cereal. Much less flame or burning there." She said with a laugh

They ate there breakfast and got in to Sokka's car and drove off to the school. The same boy that Katara had seen earlier was walking out of his house book bag over one shoulder. He pushed a button and the trunk of his car popped open. He put the bag in the trunk shut the door, looked both ways down the street. Then got in his car and drove off the opposite way.

Sokka pulled in to a spot at the high school and Katara proceeded in to the school Sokka right behind her, then went there separate ways. A young girl sitting at a bench wearing black pants with a studded belt, and a layered t-shirt sat with her messenger bag listing to music.  
"Hey Toph!" she said  
"Hi Katara, how was you're summer?" she asked pulling out the ear buds  
"better than some…I broke up with Jet." She said  
"What? Why?" she asked  
"…he didn't know what I wanted out of school and life…we are just I don't know…too different…" she tried to explain "and plus he kept asking and pressuring me to…" Katara blushed "…to have sex…" she said with a low whisper.

"Oh." Toph said. "That." Toph opened her mouth to say something but the bell rang instead.  
"I have to get to class…I'll talk to you at lunch…" Katara said

Katara was on her way to her first class of the day; the same boy was in her class and picked the seat in front of her. As he sat down, Katara could smell his colonel, she breathed deeply and smiled to herself, _'smells expensive'_ she thought to herself.

The teacher came in and started the class, passing out class room procedure and course work for the semester. As the boy in front of Katara passed back the stack of papers she smelled his colonel again tried not to blush. The teacher took attendance, "Katara?" she asked, "Here…" she responded, a few students later, "Zuko?" the teacher said and the boy in front of Katara raised his hand, "Here" he said.

Next couple classes went and were just as she expected a lot of homework and projects. She was sitting at the usual lunch table waiting for her friends to join her. She was organizing her papers in folders and noting some things in her calendar, when Aang and Toph sat down a crossed from her.  
"What's going on?" Toph asked Katara.  
"Nothing…yet…I already have homework…" Katara said writing down all the assignment due dates in her calendar the school provided.

"That's what happens when you take accelerated classes." Aang said with a smile

"Yeah I knew it was going to be a challenge, that's why I signed up for all the classes." Katara said looking up to her friends. She saw the same boy as before, in the street and in her class. Zuko...she thought she remembered correctly. He was walking with a tray in one hand and what looked like to be a blackberry in the other. He looked at the phone thought a minute and started to text a reply.

Katara didn't want to think about him now or who he was talking to, she had to focus on her school work and not boys, but he wouldn't leave her head. She kept watch of him every so often, he would pick up the phone read what was on the screen and then text a reply, set the phone down and eat his lunch alone.

After a while Sokka and Suki came to the table that Aang, Toph and Katara were occupying.  
"Do you need a ride to work after school?" he asked, Katara opened her schedule, "Nope not today." She said looking back at her brother.

The bell rang to signify that lunch was over and everyone went to there next class. Katara walked to her class room and found a seat near the front. She was getting her folder for the particular class and her assignment notebook out with a pencil. She was doodling on the front page of the notebook when he walked in to Katara's classroom she looked up at him and a tiny blush came to her face, and quickly looked back down at her doodle.

He looked around the room and found a vacant desk, and sat down. Shortly after the bell rang, Katara looked around and found that the mystery boy...Zuko was sitting in the next row. She finally got a pretty good look at him; he had short black hair, and really brown almost gold eyes. He was wearing a button down shirt with a coordinating under shirt, with a dark blue jean and a nice brown shoe. He was very well put together, and screamed wealth.

Katara immediately loathed him, for flaunting his wealth and rolled her eyes at him. She watched him out of the corner of her eye reach in his brown message bag and get out a notebook and a pencil.

The class began and the teacher passed out class room procedures and the assignment list as previous teachers had done. She was noting all the assignments in her notebook. They were passing out books and they started on page one, and went through the basic stuff of the class, 'a building block' as the teacher said. "We will use these later in the semester and for the project." He said Katara looked through the class assignments and found the project and the requirements, _'Project will take place second grading period of the semester, student with a partner will complete following requirements'_ Katara read through the requirements and didn't find them to be too strenuous. When the time came Katara was going to ask to do it by herself.

Katara left to go to her next couple classes she arrived and found that she and her brother, and Jet were all taking the same elective. _'Fantastic'_ she thought to herself. Katara found a seat far enough away from Jet but not too far from Sokka.

Class was coming together when the same boy from before, walked in the class room. Was he following her? He couldn't because they had never met before, this school year he was new to the system. He found his seat behind Jet of all people.

The class started and Katara found her assignment notebook again and pencil and started putting the assignments in her book. _'It's going to be a long year'_ she thought, and sighed as she noted more dates.


End file.
